Goodyear’s Sealant Tires ‘Seal Up’ Savings

for City of Toronto

G O O D Y E A R C O M M E R C I A L T I R E S Y S T E M S

K eeping trucks rolling was a daunting and expensive

proposition for Toronto’s munici-pal waste management depart-ment. But a new unique built-in sealant tire, developed by Good-year, changed all that.

Every day, more than 300 waste hauling

and recycling trucks fan out across the

city of Toronto to pick up about 700 tons

of residential and commercial waste for

disposal or recycling at a number of waste

transfer sites and landfills. The trucks tra-

verse across broken glass, nails, and other

debris and navigate tight street corners

built for horse-and-buggy travel.

Once as numerous as mosquito bites on

unprotected skin on a hot, humid late sum-

mer evening, tire punctures plagued the

department’s operation.

Now, Toronto’s waste management depart-

ment fleet enjoys an operation with fewer

Toronto.indd 1 6/13/07 2:35:30 PM

puncture-caused flats because of DuraSeal Technology, said

Ross Petrini, maintenance manager for the city’s fleet services

operation. Fleet services handles vehicle maintenance for the

city’s Waste Management, Transportation, Water/Waste Water,

and Parks, Forestry and Recreation departments.

DuraSeal Technology uses a gel-like, solvent-free compound

built into the inner liner of the tire. It consistently and instantly

seals punctures up to 1/4-inch in diameter in the repairable

tread area. (Seals up to 1/4-inch tread punctures only. Does not

seal sidewall punctures.)

Three years ago, the City of Toronto’s Solid Waste Manage-

ment Services Department began a test of prototype DuraSeal

Technology tires on the steer position of five of its waste haul-

ers.* Petrini said his department has still experienced no flats

on the DuraSeal Technology tires as a result of punctures since

it started using them. That’s why his department chose last

year to start fitting all of the steer tires on its fleet of 300 waste

hauling and recycling trucks with Goodyear Unisteel G287

MSA mixed-service tires with DuraSeal Technology. And once

the correct-size tires are available for the drive position, Petrini

said he plans to start replacing those as well with DuraSeal

Technology tires.

When all of the steer tires on his department’s truck fleet have

been replaced, Petrini estimates that his department will save

more than $600 per day in service calls alone.

“That’s a huge savings for the City of Toronto (about $120,000

annually),” Petrini said. “We’re happy that Goodyear came out

with this new product.”

Before Goodyear introduced DuraSeal Technology, Toronto’s

tire maintenance contractor pulled the tires off of about 20 of

the city’s disposal and recycling trucks for servicing every day.

Petrini said tire punctures caused about half of those flats.

“These flats really slowed things down for us,” he added. “With

the resulting downtime, we had a lot of sanitation crews

standing around waiting for their truck tires to get repaired.

We also had trucks stalled on downtown streets with flat tires.

“Flats are a hazard for our drivers, particularly during rush hour,

plus residents and businesses rely on us to pick up their trash

and recycling on a set schedule,” he said. “To get us back on

schedule, our employees had to work a lot of overtime.

“DuraSeal Technology helps us keep our pickup schedule and

significantly reduces our overtime and tire maintenance costs,”

he added.

David Benko, director of Goodyear’s Global Materials, said

the City of Toronto’s experience with DuraSeal Technology

bolsters the results of a marketing study. The Goodyear study

revealed, among other things, that refuse fleets with 50 trucks

typically are slowed by 102 tire-related service calls per month.

It found that 69 percent of those calls can be attributed to

tire punctures and each call cost the fleets $170, or more than

$143,000 per year.

“The study clearly identi-

fied the need, and the

experience of the sanita-

tion department of Toronto

demonstrates Goodyear has clearly developed a product to

meet that need,” Benko said.

Ross Petrini, maintenance manager for the City of Toronto’s fleet services.

* This is a testimonial of a Goodyear customer. Your results/

performance may vary based on usage, conditions and main-

tenance. Goodyear Unisteel ® G287 MSA and DuraSeal Technol-

ogy are trademarks of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.

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